In a synchronous optical network (SONET) or synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network element (NE), the receive line SONET/SDH clock recovered in an ingress line card may have a slightly different frequency than the transmit system SONET/SDH clock in an egress line card, thereby requiring periodic adjustment of the pointer bytes in outgoing SONET/SDH frames. Determination of the appropriate adjustment, however, may be complicated by the presence of a switch fabric coupling the ingress and egress line cards. Particularly where the switch fabric operates asynchronous to the ingress and egress line cards, experiences jitter across the switch fabric, performs hybrid switching functions such as switching time division multiplexed (TDM) and non-TDM traffic simultaneously across the switch fabric, and exists in a multi-shelf environment where ingress and egress line cards can reside in two physically separated shelves of the SONET/SDH NE.